Page 39 of Their Knotty Pack (Starbrook City Omegaverse #3)

"Ow! Fuck!" He cries, looking up at me as I tower over him. I have no idea what's in my expression, but he backs away immediately, and I release his wrist when he does.

"I believe you said you were just leaving.

" I loosen my grip on my dominance, just enough for them to see that I mean business.

I can feel Kieran settle behind me, no longer out of his mind with the need to put these alphas in their place.

This is my role as Pack Lead. I should have stepped in long before now.

The asshole holds his wrist in his hand as he backs away. "You just assaulted me. I'm a lawyer, you know."

"I was protecting my omegas from alphas harassing them," I correct.

"Anyone will see that, especially considering Bethany's kept all the voicemails you've been leaving her.

" Well, I hope she has. "So unless you want me to arrest you right here and now, you.

Will. Leave. Us. Alone." I punctuate each word with a step forward as they all scramble backward, and finally, leave the patio.

Our food, half-eaten on the table, now makes my stomach sour as I look down at the omega in question. "Let's….I'm going to pay and we can go home and talk about this."

The drive home is quiet and uncomfortable. As soon as we get into the house and file into the living room, we take the same seats we had only this afternoon when they asked to court us.

The words are out before anyone else can say anything. "How long have they been harassing you? Why didn't you tell me?"

Miles is silent, his eyes down in his lap. He's hurt, I can tell. She didn't tell him either.

" I was going to tell you," Brody says, then winces, "I mean, I only found out on Friday night, and Bethany explained that while this may not be the correct way to deal with it, she was hoping it would just…go away."

He then looks at Bethany questioningly, and she sighs before nodding. "She's asked me to share everything with you guys."

So we listen with clenched fists as Brody recounts everything Bethany told him the other day. From her pack cheating on her by taking Miles on a date, to her and Miles being scent matched.

Kieran and Damien look just as surprised as I'm sure I do.

"I'm still learning to trust you guys," Bethany jumps in, playing with the hem of her shirt. "In my heart, I know that you guys aren't like them, but my brain…I'm conditioned to respond a certain way to things, and I'm working on it."

Rage roars in my chest for my omega, but I can't let her see it. "Even if you didn't come to me as your alpha, you could have come to me as a detective."

"And say what?" She barks a sarcastic laugh. "Please help me, even though you're already swamped at work and my life is otherwise great, these voicemails hurt my feelings so please take time away from your investigation to tend to me?"

My answer is instant. "Yes."

She sits, stunned for a minute, before shaking her head. "You don't mean that. These are silly little voicemails, they aren't hurting me—"

"They aren't silly, they're harassment, and the way you paled when he brought them up tells me that they are hurting you."

They're hurting her, and it's killing me that I didn't see it.

That I didn't realize just how fucked up things were for her before she met Miles.

We had put together that she had a pack before, based on her Instagram, but to meet them in person, and see how insufferable they are?

How she even has a shell of a personality left is beyond me.

"Lo ok, I'm sorry," Bethany says, looking around the room. "I should have asked for help, or told you guys. But they're just voicemails. Nothing I haven't heard from them before."

"I want to hear them." Miles says quietly, still looking down.

She shakes her head, "No, you don't—"

"If there's anything on there talking about me or my damn mate, then I deserve to know about it, Bethany." I've never heard him speak to her like that before.

"We should probably all hear them, so we know what we're dealing with," I say gently.

Lip wobbling, she pulls up her phone, opens up the cloud app, and looks up at us. "This one is from the day after you guys moved in."

She plays the voicemails, all of them laced with thinly veiled threats. When she gets to one that refers to Miles as her "boy-toy", a growl rips out of him, before he abruptly stands and stomps from the room.

"That's enough, Hunter," Brody says a little harshly, and I nod, turning to Bethany. "Can you please share those with me?"

Swallowing she nods, and after she does, I turn to my pack brothers. "Would you guys mind giving Bethany and I a moment alone?"

They all have varying looks of discomfort on their faces, but they leave the room, Kieran saying something about checking on Miles. Then, it's just Bethany and I.

She looks to me as I stand and cross the room, crouching in front of her so we're eye level.

"Why did you send them away?" She asks quietly, not meeting my eyes.

"I have something to say that's for your ears alone."

That does make her look up at me, and my breath nearly catches in my throat at the sight of her beauty. Her tongue darts out to wet her bottom lip. "What is it?"

"I' m sorry."

"I…what?"

"I'm sorry, bluebell." The nickname slips out, but she doesn't seem upset.

"If I had been here more, if I had made an effort to get to know you better before all this…

maybe you would have felt comfortable talking to me about it.

I can't…I can't believe you've been sitting with this, alone all this time.

" Just the thought that she was left to deal with Pack Hansen on her own for that long makes the rage boil under my skin again, and my carefully guarded control starts to slip, my fingers tightening on the cushions on either side of her.

"You don't have to feel bad—"

"Feel bad? Oh bluebell, I am so past 'feeling bad'. I'm livid. Pissed at this entire fucked up situation and at myself, because I failed you."

“Hunter, it’s not a big deal. I lived with them for three years, I know how to handle it.”

“I’m not sure why you’re saying that like it will calm me down. Do you know how infuriating it is to know that you were being treated like shit by a pack for three damn years while I was in the same city, oblivious to your existence?"

“You couldn’t have-“

“It doesn’t matter, bluebell. I should have known .”

"Really?" she asks, a smile tilting at her lips, "You're mad at yourself because you didn't somehow magically know that I was having a hard time, when one, you didn't know me, and two, even I didn't realize it?"

"Yes." Gods, I'm so dead serious, but she just lets out this little sigh.

"I guess we both have some things to work on, Detective Hunter Song." Her hand reaches up tentatively, and I don't stop her as she runs it through the side of my hair. Fuck, that feels good.

My eyes close, and in the next instant, a kiss is being pressed to my cheek. I can feel her eyelashes brush against my cheek bone, and a little sigh leaves me.

"I promise I'll work on asking for help, but you need to work on not blaming yourself for things out of your control."

My eyes open, and her face is mere inches from mine. It's a tall order, but I find myself wanting to try. For her. "Deal."